It all started with an offhand comment by a friend. He had just read—and really liked—one of my unpublished mystery/suspense manuscripts. He’s familiar with the difficulties of getting published, and he said I “should write something with vampires in it. Anything with vampires sells.” I decided that was a pretty good idea, and thus was Breathless born.

For me, Breathless was a sort of Vampire Diaries Goes to College with a hint of Underworld—in a good way. Did you read the Twilight series, watch True Blood or Vampire Diaries?

I purposely did not read the Twilight series, because I didn’t want to “borrow” anything from it, even subconsciously. I read about the series to give myself some direction, since a paranormal romance was so far from anything I’d ever written—and not very close to anything I’d ever read.

I finally saw the Twilight movie on television in June. I haven’t watched True Blood because I don’t have HBO and I saw my first episode of Vampire Diaries just last week. I enjoyed the Underworld movies even before I decided to write Breathless and I watched some other vampire movies and TV shows to give myself some vampire background. Tax deductible movies—how cool is that?

The whole young girl at college, falling in love was well-rendered. How does a single 50 year old man "get into the mind of a teenage girl" without getting arrested?

I knew going in that this would be my biggest challenge. Since my primary audience is women in their teens and twenties (although women and men of all ages have been telling me how much they enjoy Breathless), I had to make sure whatever I wrote about clothes, music, dialogue, thoughts and feelings rang true. So, I placed an ad on Craigslist looking for a female college student to be my resource.

I heard back from a number of helpful women, but one stood out from the rest; Jessica was a junior at the time and was also interning at a small publishing company and writing a book of her own. She not only provided information and insight on teen/college life, she even did some preliminary editing for me. Amazingly, I've still never met Jessica in person.

You introduced a new supernatural “species”. Where did you get the idea for Rave?

I’m not really sure. I didn’t want the male love interest to be a vampire, because that’s been done and overdone, so I had to come up with something else. I wanted something original so I invented my own supernatural creature, a volkaane. Rave just kind of evolved. If he was going to be a vampire hunter, he would need a special power and I liked the idea of an “inner fire.”

Making volkaanes unable to use modern appliances because of that inner energy enabled me to put extra obstacles between Leesa and Rave. The story would have been much different if Leesa could have simply called him on his cell whenever she needed or wanted him.

I’ll bet there are plenty of men out there who wished they were volkaane so they’d have a better excuse as to why they didn’t call… Why did you choose to have volkaanes kill vampires by "kissing" them?

It wasn’t so much about having volkaanes slay vampires by kissing them as it was making his kiss deadly, to put another obstacle in his relationship with Leesa. It also made it necessary for any combat with a vampire to take place at close quarters, rather than shooting a bolt of fire from his hand, for instance. Right from the beginning I thought “Breathless” was a pretty good title, and the idea of “taking her breath away” fit right in.

Would you date a girl who could incinerate you with a kiss?

As Leesa would say, “Ha!” I definitely did not expect this question. I guess yes, if I knew she had good control. I enjoy kissing, and an “extra hot” kiss would be pretty great. I’d make sure I stayed on her good side, though!

Did you do anything special in the book, ala The Sixth Sense and the color red?

Actually, every chapter of Breathless begins with the opening line—or partial opening line—of another book, poem or play. I mainly just wanted to do something different. It was very challenging, but also very fun to find the right lines and work them into my story without being overly obvious or jarring to the reader.

The lines are taken from authors as disparate as Dickens, Salinger, Goodkind, Poe and St. Exupery. Some are from classics, while others are from sci-fi/fantasy or other books that I think readers of Breathless might enjoy. My hope is that some readers will be motivated to find these other books and give them a try. There are also many other literary references sprinkled throughout the book.

So, you’ve basically included a literary version of the “Easter Egg” – you gamers know what I’m talking about.

And now for the much-abused, over-asked and annoying question: What inspires you?

Can I say money? Just joking. I like the freedom that writing gives me, in terms of controlling and scheduling my time—my dad would translate that into saying I’m basically lazy. I also love getting positive feedback from readers.

Where do you see yourself in 5 days?

Five days!? Do you know something I don’t? Five days is Sunday. I’m pretty sure I’ll be watching football and drinking beer.

On a more serious note, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month—will you be participating in any way?

Definitely! I will be donating $2 from every copy of Breathless sold through my website during the month of October to the Susan G. Komen foundation in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Wow. I’m actually impressed. Is this a cause close to your heart?

Well, several of my former co-workers suffered breast cancer. I also have an aunt with a different form of cancer and my uncle died of cancer. Additionally, my best friend Marc just passed away from cancer in April. Marc helped me finance Breathless and it’s to him that the book is dedicated.

That’s very touching. I’m sure Marc would have been thrilled with the response you’re getting on the book. Are you writing anything now?

I’ve been fooling around with a “mash novel,” putting vampires, zombies and witches into an American literature classic. It’s fun and relatively easy, since so much of the writing has already been done by the original author.

Before we finish up, are you planning a sequel to Breathless?

If my readers demand it, I’ll be happy to write a sequel. I wrapped up most of the main conflicts in Breathless—I hate books that leave major things hanging at the end, so I wouldn’t do that—but there is an underlying magical phenomenon I named Destiratu growing throughout the book; and I made it clear that if Destiratu keeps growing, then trouble is on the way…

Well, I’m sure your fans will want more of Leesa and Rave, so we’ll keep an eye out for that sequel.

Thanks for taking the time, Scott, it's been fun.

You can find Scott Prussing here:

And ladies… he’s cute and single…